Family Members Remember Dedham Native Killed on 9/11

Every day for three years Bill Coombs thought of Osama bin Laden and expected to be elated when the notorious terrorist responsible for his brother's death was killed. Instead, upon hearing that U.S. forces killed bin Laden late Sunday night, a wall of grief hit him.

"I feel anything but joy," Coombs said Monday at rose-laying ceremony held at the Boston Public Garden and attended by victims' friends and family, Gov. Deval Patrick, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Attorney General Martha Coakley. Loved ones and politicians laid 206 roses at the memorial in remembrance of the 206 people with Massachusetts ties who died that day. 

"[The news] brought back the enormity of that day more than any of the anniversaries did," he said. "I really didn't expect it. That's what's really surprising me." 

Coombs' brother, Jeffrey Coombs, of Abington and a Dedham native, was one of the passengers on American Airlines Flight 11, which departed from Boston on Sept. 11, 2011.

Bill Coombs said he no longer feels the anger toward bin Laden that he used to. "I think it's been so long you kind of put it in the back of your mind," he said. But perhaps there is something about the finality bin Laden's death evokes that makes today more painful than Coombs expected, he said. 

For him, as well as for the other family members gathered on a perfect spring day in Boston's garden, there is no closure, there will never be.

"When people say there is closure, it makes me crazy," Irene Ross, who lost her brother Richard, said. Richard, of Newton, was on American Airlines Flight 11. "I've just been very torn," she said. "I'm glad [bin Laden] is gone. I'm glad he's in the sea and I hope the sharks are having a feast."

"The pain never leaves," Dorothy Grodberg, who lost her daughter Lisa, said. News of bin Laden's death came as a shock to her; she didn't expect the U.S. to find him, she said.

"I feel some justice has been made but it brings back a lot of painful memories. The void is still there," Bill Callahan, of Lynnfield, said of his friend, Ace Bailey, a former Boston Bruins player who was killed in United Airlines Flight 175, which departed from Logan International Airport.

Christie Coombs, Jeff Coombs' wife, said her 16-year-old daughter told her that nothing has changed for their family today. "She still woke up without her dad. I still woke up without my husband," Coombs said in an emotional interview with a few of the dozens of news reporters the memorial.

"Jeff was a great dad. The kids miss him terribly, I miss seeing him interact with the kids. I miss his laughter in the house," she said. 

She and other family members expressed relief that bin Laden was killed and not caught alive because they wouldn't want to endure a trial. She is also grateful that President Barack Obama stuck to the mission of finding bin Laden.

"I'm just glad we can move on," Grodberg said. 

Danielle and Carie Lemack, both of Belmont, lost their mother, Judy Larocque, that day. She had been on American Airlines Flight 11. 

"I think we feel a sense of relief that Osama bin Laden can't do this to anyone again," Danielle Lemack said. But, her sister added, "Today is not the day to focus on one man. We have to focus on the threats that still exist."